Finding Fate
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: a secret royal bloodline was unearthed after the war making throttle a prince,and now throttle is backed into a corner because he needs to restart the royal blood line. he find the answer in a woman kidnapped and abused. rated M for implied situations
1. Chapter 1

It must have been fate that had brought him to the red brick building downtown, in the Chicago bronx.

Fate that had caused him to find out that Carbine was fucking several other people behind his back. Fate that had made him a heir to a long lost royal bloodline. Making him a prince among his own people. Fate that had helped him finally pull himself together again so that he could once again try to find himself a mate and take the plunge.

It wasn't that he actually was ready to risk his heart again, no nothing like that. It was more like everyone (Stoker, Modo, Vinny, Rimfire, Charlie) had gotten into the habit of annoying him by reminding him that as the last of the Thornboy's- and the last of a long lost royal blood line- it was his duty to find a nice girl and settle down.

Frankly he'd be happier if they'd back off and leave him the hell alone. Still he knew that they sort of had a point.

I mean, Modo and Vinny were settling down. So it was only natural that they would want him to settle down too. Especially since he had been formally crowned prince of their planet almost six months ago after spending close to five years rebuilding their civilazation.

Fate that had caused Stoker to come barging into the home the earth government had given to him and his guards as an act of good will, and demanded that he get out of the house and go do something aside from sitting behind his desk all day pouring over laws, bills of legislation, and files with pictures of young women that his martian appointed government had deemed fit to continue his royal blood line.

Fate that had deemed that he'd sat inside for far too long, alone and needed to get out smell the roses and unwind. He'd spent the better part of his day just walking around, ignoring the fact that some of the people on the streets knew his face and who he was.

He'd had a few school kids run up to him and introduce themselves, and had stopped long enough to talk to them. Finding their youthful enthusiasm at meeting him, adorable before he'd said bye to them and walked on.

He'd been walking for hours, enjoying the fresh air, the sunlight warming his fur. He enjoyed being able to stretch his legs and move about freely. And though these things were highly enjoyable to him it also gave him time to think about what he needed to do.

The others were right, he needed to settle down. He was twenty six, single, still health. Still fairly whole aside from his eyes. He had a lot to offer a woman didn't he? He'd once thought so, but now wasn't so sure.

It was Carbines fault of course. He'd offered her everything and she had all but spit on him. He didn't know what to do. He'd never felt so uncertain before. He sighed and ran his fingers through his long mid back length brown hair and turned his attention back to the building that he'd been standing in front of for the better part of thirty minutes.

He'd heard rumors that this building was one of the best places to come when you had an itch of some kind and wanted to blow off a little bit of steam. He didn't particularly have an itch...but it had been a while since he'd last had a warm willing body.

So maybe resorting to coming to such a place wouldn't be so bad. As long as the people inside could keep their mouths shut and not go blabbing to the tabloids about his visit that is.


	2. Chapter 2

Throttle stood in the foyer, all but gaping at the amount of people paired off around the room in front of him either fucking or giving blow jobs in plain sight. The heavy smell of cigar smoke and sex hung in the air along with the scent of sweat.

The walls of the building were covered in nude paintings that looked like antiques. Behind them the walls they were hung from were covered in colorful bolts of silk. The reds, golds, ambers, and copper colors blending together in his mind as he blinked his eyes.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there just looking around but he must have made himself stand out pretty good. Because one second he was alone and the next a swarm a women in brightly colored, scadalously sheer outfits were all around him. Touching and petting and cooing at him.

To say that he was startled by the attention was an understatment. He would have been less startled if he'd been shot at. He jumped and stumbled back a little bit and flattened himself against the wall and stared wide eyed at the gaggle of females as they advanced on him, not the least bothered by the fact that he'd just about jumped out of his skin a second ago.

If anything they seemed to think it was cute. One woman, a brunette with long painted nails ran her hand along his abs and cooed. "My, my what a pretty boy you are." Another woman flattened her breasts against his side, and cupped him through his pants.

He jerked and banged his head against the wall and hissed as he reached down and pried the woman's hand from his crotch as another woman licked one of his hands. He jerked again and wondered what the hell was going on with these females.

To his knowledge human women weren't so agressive. At least not without outside stimulants. Another woman licked him. Just above the waist of his pants this time and he made a frustrated sound and carefully managed to get the women to let go of him and step away then sort of ran down the hall to another room as the gaggle of overly agressive females blind sided another man who had just walked out of the foyer and started pressing flesh and cooing all over again.

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Ara Morgana De'lange had been kidnapped on her way to school when she had been seventeen.

The only child of George and Anna De'lange, both lawyers who lived out of state somewhere in Iowa, Ara had carried a lot of pressure from her family to grow up, graduate, go to collage and become a lawyer too.

And instead of doing those things, she'd been grabbed off of the street, drugged and gang raped by close to eight men who then had taken her and sold her to a brothel out of state, far from her parents, her home and all that she'd ever known.

And in that time she had been bought and sold on a regular basis. Yet even so she couldn't help but feel nervous about tonight.

Several months aog she had almost been rescued when the people who had previously owned her had been busted by the cops. However unfortunately for her some of their partners in the buisness of flesh peddling had been there just long enough to grab a few of their girls, her included and had dragged them out of their former home kicking and screaming and taken across state lines again where they had wound up in Chicago.

They had been put in a warehouse at first, in little rat infested cells where they received customers to see who could do the whole 'whore' thing best and upon realizing that she was an excellent source of untapped income had taken her, branded her skin with the letters BC meaning black cherry, the name of the building that she had been placed in to work for her new bosses.

Which was partially why she was so nervous. The unknown always had a way of rattling her. But then she'd survived being used and mistreated so far, she supposed that she could do it a little bit longer if it meant having another chance to be free'd since running away simply didn't work.

Although it did have some benifits. Ara looked away form her reflection to the small table next to the large cherry oak bed and her lips curved up in a small smile as she recalled the poster that she had been able to smuggle back in with her the last time she'd run away from the brothel.

It was an old poster of herself, a flier with her name, age, and picture on it to indicate that she was missing. All she had to do is show it to someone and maybe, just maybe she'd get lucky and finally get some help.

It had been five years since her abduction and she _longed_ so much to see her parents again. She turned back around to the large oval mirror sitting on her vanity and picked up her brush and started to fix her hair for tonight.

She'd been told that for now she should wear her near waist length jet black hair up in an intricate knot or something and leave only a few thick strands loose around her neck to make her look more otherworldly.

It took her about thirty minutes, but finally she was able to pile her thick hair up in the style of her choice using a style that she'd seen in reference to a greek goddess. Her dark hair had been curled, piled up on top of her head with little dark blue rhinestones and pearl twists in her hair among the curls.

Once that was done she stood up and walked over to the white satin covered bed and picked up her outfit for tonight and blinked in surprise as the loveley dark azure blue satin dress that would hang off of her slender shoulders, emphasising the curve of her breasts, her flat stomach, the flair of her hips and would fall to her ankles. She set the dress aside and looked at the other items laying there and sighed.

There was a little azure blue butterfly patterned lace necklace with little pearls, skin toned thigh high silk leggings and spaghetti strapped azure blue heels.

All in all it took her ten more minutes to get dressed before she sat down on the bed and did her best to be patient while silently praying that whoever bought her tonight would be a kind person willing to help her.


	3. Chapter 3

After his escape from the overly agressive females from before, Throttle found himself in a room with a functioning bar and sat down somewhere and ordered a few drinks as he scanned the people, looking for some...thing.

Actually he didn't know what he was looking for. In fact he doubted that he'd find whatever it was while he was sober so he'd actually sat down with the intention to get good and foxed so that he'd be able to find whatever and loosen up enough to have some fun.

God it had been a while since he'd had honest to god fun. He hadn't been able to go to the beach, or watch a football game in so long that he often fantasized about forging some papers. Making them look old, and putting Vinny or Modo's names on them so that he could foist all of his current his headaches off on them and run for it.

It was either that or he'd get drunk one night and decide to burn his work, his study and just about anything else not flame proof. Of course logically speaking he knew that wouldn't be a good idea.

He was the leader of a planet now. Burning shit to ashes, even if it was to liberate himself from...stuff that he was starting to forget the very name of. He looked down at his empty shot glass and then at the other little glasses piled neatly in front of him and licked his lips as he mentally counted them. There were four shot glasses, and he couldn't recall drinking them, where he was or even what he'd been thinking a second ago.

He looked down at the full shot glass that the bar tender had just sat down in front of him and picked it up and hummed. _This place has some damn good alcohol._ He thought as he tossed the drink back then set the glass down and motioned to the bartender to cut himself off before he lost all reasoning ablity and then stood while making a mental note to himself.

He'd have to send someone here later on to ask them about their alcohol supplier.

He moved around the room, feigning interest in some of the tacky art pieces and listened to little snippets of conversation and overheard a few guys over in the corner of the room talking about a new girl somewhere upstairs and how it was her first night in this place. He listened to them talk for several minutes, gleaning that one of the men had seen her at some point and was bragging about how beautiful the woman was.

Throttle listened a little while longer to their conversation until it started to take on a sick turn, which inwardly had his mind stuttering in alarm. Apparently there were some peculiar rules about this place and how it's women were treated. All of which churned his stomach.

1) The woman doesn't get to say no. Even if her life is in mortal danger she is to service everyone that walks into her appointed area.

2) She is to remain professional at all times no matter how horrible an act she is ordered to do.

3) If a customer pays enough, he or they can bruise, beat, strangle or even kill the woman servicing them.

Throttle was hating these rules already and while he knew that he was probably no better than anyone else in this place, he'd never expected so many people to be so careless about the potential danmage they were doing to another person's life before.

Did these men even realize what they were initiating in? He wondered when he heard someone mention what room the new girl was in and quickly turned on his heel and walked out of the room intending to buy the girl for the night and ask her if she wanted to be here.

It was stupid, he knew he couldn't save everyone. Yet at the same time he couldn't just walk away.

If the girl told him that she wanted to be here, risking her life for bastards like the ones he'd overheard, then he would shrug it off and do his buisness and leave. But if she said she didn't want to be here, he would sure as hell do something about it and he wasn't afraid to fight dirty.

He took the steps two at a time and easily found room thirteen and stood there for a second trying to control the urge to barge in, drag the woman out and kill anyone that got in his way.

He put a hand against his head and took several deep breaths trying to control his protective impulses while reminding himself that not everyone wanted to be saved and reached out and gripped the door knob and looked around, and upon noting that no one was around to see him, slipped into the room and silently closed it behind him then turned and froze as his heart stalled in his chest.

_Holy mother of- _His eyes widened a little bit behind his shades and he suddenly forgot to breathe as his eyes locked with vivid lavender with neon pink rims around the pupils. The woman sitting on the bed among the pristine white of the sheets was by far one of the most stunning beauty's he had ever laid eyes on before.

Everything about her positively screamed _beautiful. _

He took a moment to look her over, noting that she had dressed and styled her hair with meticulous care. Her dress was a lovely azure blue satin that hung off of her milky shoulders, displaying the soft swells of her breasts to perfection. She stared at him for a second then shifted a little bit and crossed her ankles, the slight action catching his attention, and holding him mesmerized before he pulled himself together enough to finally think clearly enough to give her an awkward/shy smile suddenly feeling more than a little bit at a loss.

What had he come here to do again? He wondered as the woman gracefully stood up and walked over to him and held her hand out to him. He looked a little startled but absently took her hand and let her pull him away from the door with a soft laugh as she asked, "Are you coming or going lover?"

He was coming. Definately coming.


	4. Chapter 4

Ara had been stunned when the strange man had stepped into her room and looked at her with a wide eyed expression of awe. She supposed that for a moment there her expression had been similar. After all it wasn't everyday that a woman like her saw a six foot six, one hundred and sixty pound, totally ripped tawny furred humanoid mouse decked out in black jeans, a leather vest that was left open displaying the hard muscles of his chest and washboard abs.

If asked later on what she had been expecting of her first night in the Black Cherry, she would definately say 'not him'. Still it wasn't as if she was averse to his presence. In fact, if anything she was rather intrigued by him.

Probably as much as he seemed to be with her. However unlike her he wasn't able to pull himself together quickly enough. He gave her an awkward/shy looking smile and she'd realized that he wasn't quite sure what to do now that he was alone with her.

It wasn't the first time that someone had been intimidated by her appearance. Just never someone...so _extrodinary_. Sensing his lack of confidence she seized her chance and quietly stood up from the bed and walked over to him and held out a hand to him.

Deciding that if she had to service someone tonight that this fellow would certainly give her something to talk to the other girls about in the morning. He took her hand in his and Ara couldn't help but notice that his grip, while firm, was also very gentle.

In fact, he held her hand as if it were made of spun glass and he, being the hulking man that he was; was afraid that he might harm her in some way as she led him over to the bed and very gently pushed him down so that he was sitting then sat down next to him.

He had scarlet eyes behind his green colored shades. And they were entirely focused on her.

She'd never felt such a strong urge to squirm before, but she was a professional. She had no choice but to be or she'd wind up with more bruises than last time. So she plastered on a friendly, yet fake smile and asked him his name.

Throttle managed to finally stop staring at her when she asked him his name. In fact his addled mind seemed to snap back to attention altogether when she asked him his name and while he didn't answer her right away. Instead choosing to make her wait for a moment before managing to say in his rough gravely husky tone, "Throttle Thornboy. What's your name?"

Ara smiled politely and was about to tell him her fake name but decided that Butterfly was simply too cheesy a name to bother mentioning. "Ara. My name is Ara."

"Ara-" Throttle mimicked, testing the name on his tongue. God's had there ever been a name more perfect for a woman? He wondered as he gave her a small smile. "That is a very nice name." He said after a second or so. She smiled at him and his heart did this funny flutter in his chest.

"What would you like done tonight, Throttle?" Ara asked curiously, hoping that this man wasn't much of a freak. She'd be unable to do her job tomorrow night if he left her torn and bleeding like some people had.

He frowned at her question, forgetting for the moment that he was in a brothel and beautiful Ara was one of the girls who sold herself to the highest bidder. But reality kicked in, crashing down on his mind, reminding him why he had come here and causing him to grab her by the shoulders.

Startling her if her wide eyed look was any indication at all as he said, "Fuck, I forgot the reason why I came here-" Ara opened her mouth to say something and he let go of one of her shoulders to place his finger tips against her lips and said in a rushed tone. "There are men in the bar downstairs and I overheard them talking about some of the rules of this place-" Ara's eyes widened and her pale skin got impossibly paler.

_Oh god_, he wasn't one of those types was he? She wondered in fear as she tried to focus on his words.

"Do you want to be here?" He asked suddenly. She blinked at him, not really understanding what he was talking about as he swore under his breath a removed his hand from her lips and said in a slightly calmer tone. "What I mean is, Do you want to stay here and service people?"

Ara blinked again and thought for a moment. Now could finally be the chance she had been hoping to get. The one that would lead her to her freedom, but she was wary of him. What if she said no and he turned out to be one of her new bosses and beat her for it. What would she do then? "I cannot say no to anyone in this place. So I'm unsure of what exactly you want me to say."

"Tell me the truth. Tell me if you want to stay here or if you want me to get you out of here." Throttle said in an insistant tone as he waited for her to say something.

"There is a paper in the drawer in the bedside table. And while I can't say anything, I'm sure that you'll get all the answers you need from it." Ara said in a hollow tone as she got up from the bed and put some distance between herself and the strange man and held her breath and waited. Hoping to god that she hadn't given in too easily and with the wrong person.

She doubted that she'd survive another beating. Or being locked in the basement without food, clothes or water for another few weeks. It had taken her close to three months to regain the weight she'd lost after the last time.

She listened to the small sound of the table drawer being pulled out and the soft crinkling of the poster as it was pulled from it's hiding place, and fisted her hands in her skirt and tried not to betray her anxiety when she heard a sharp intake of breath from her visitor a second before he got up off of the bed and walked up behind her and put a large hand on one of her shoulders and squeezed slightly and said in a dark tone. "Wait one more day Ara. I'll buy you for the night, then sneak out the window. I'll contact everyone I have too, but I will get you out of here by tomorrow evening. You just sit tight until then okay."

Ara wasn't sure what to say to him, so she just nodded her head and gripped the edge of her vanity and tried to breathe through the weak feeling in her knees.


	5. Chapter 5

Throttle bought Ara for the night and spent a good hour or so sitting in her room making phone calls to his bros. He explained the situation to them and asked them to do something to draw attention to the building. He explained that by drawing unwanted attention to the building and the people that owned it, he would have a better chance of getting the women (many of whom Ara had told him were also kidnapping/rape/abuse victims) out of the building and shutting down while having many of the clients visiting taken into custody by the police.

His plan was simple, easily done, and brilliant.

Modo and Vinny had drafted Rimfire and Stoker to buy enough paint to coat the building's four sides in bright vivid colors like red, orange, and black. The message that they had to put up to make people stop and pay attention was also simple.

**THE WOMEN OF THIS BUILDING ARE VICTIMS OF RAPE, TORTURE, AND OTHER FORMS OF ABUSE.**

Someone would contact the police while Modo contacted several news stations to do a report on the story. And while all of this was going on it would be chaos in the building. Which would make it easy to slip in while everyone was panicking and grab Ara and sneak her out the back.

From there he would have her taken to the hospital to be checked out while he arranged for her to stay someplace safe while trying to hunt down her family. Once he was done making his phone calls he snapped his cell shut and looked over at the woman with a mixture of concern and regret.

He didn't like the idea of leaving her alone here for any length of time. There were far too many unknown factors that he wasn't aware of. Yet he knew that staying could cause even more trouble for her. Especially since her pimp had come by an hour or so ago to see if they were done.

Throttle had put on a spactacular show of getting busy with her and had growled at the man to go away. But he understood why the man was coming by. Someone else was probably trying to buy Ara's services.

And that was something that Thottle couldn't allow. Not when he was trying to protect her. He'd paid more than three thousand dollars for her for the night. And had had to up his price every two or three hours to make sure that he wouldn't be thrown out so that someone else could take his place. He was sure that if he didn't then the next time he saw the woman, it would be in a body bag.

And that was unacceptable to him.

Ara was sitting on the bed, still awake despite the late hour, though she was looking more and more tired to him by the second. She had taken her hair down a while ago and changed her clothes to a simple long sleeved lavender colored shirt with buttons and a pair of cut off shorts that were considerably more modest than he had expected them to be.

"You should try to get some sleep." He said gently as he stuffed his phone back into his right front pants pocket. Ara looked up at him and gave him a wry smile and shook her head no.

"This is the first time in five years that anyone has ever offered to help me escape. I want to stay awake and watch their sadistic world of sick games come crumbling down around their heads."

Throttle's lips twitched in amusement as he felt a great deal of admiration for this women. There was no doubt in his mind that the past five years had been horrible for her. But she had somehow managed not to lose her mind, or give up hope in an other wise hopeless situation.

Such strength was rare.

He walked over to the bed and sat down next to her and slipped an arm around her shoulders. She jumped a little bit at the contact and tipped her head back a little bit to give him a startled look and he gave her a tight lipped smile and softly apologized for startling her and pulled her against his side and started running his fingers through her hair. "I understand how you feel Ara. But you could at least rest for an hour or so."

She leaned into him a little bit and shook her head no. "You're planning to leave soon."

"Yes. But I'll be back."

Ara grasped his vest in a white knuckled grip that startled Throttle a little bit before understanding dawned on him. _Ah, so it's like that._ She was anxious that once he left he wouldn't come back or keep his word to help her. She didn't know him well so her worries were valid. A little bit insulting to him, but valid never the less.

She didn't know who he was or that his honor meant everything to him any more than she knew that once he had given someone his word to do something, he couldn't break it. Doing so would make him lose the faith, and trust that others had in him.

It would make him no better than the lowest trash. He sighed and continued to run his fingers through her soft hair and after a moment or so said, "Just close your eyes and rest for a little bit. I'll wake you before I go."

Ten minutes later Ara was sound asleep with her head on his leg, her hands still tightly grasping his vest. He stayed an extra hour in a half before it was time to go, and though he tried to wake her, he couldn't. So after a few minutes of debating he slipped his vest off and used it to partially cover her before grasping the covers of the bed and doubled them over on top of her then silently slipped out the window and met his bro's and Stoker and Rimefire outside the building to begin their work.


	6. Chapter 6

Gene Harrows was the first person to see the people collecting around the building.

He'd been busy a little while ago collecting money from his bitches when he had walked by one of the windows and noticed one of the customers from last night, the six foot something, brown furred mutant mouse that had paid Butterfly a visit last night and had watched as he and several others made their way over to the building and started spray painting the place.

He didn't mind having graffiti on his building, he had more than enough money to have it removed. No what bothered him was the phone calls he had gotten about an hour afterwards when he'd been told that someone had painted words on the front of the building.

Deciding to investigate, he had slipped on some more decent clothes then slipped out of the back door and walked around to the front and looked at his building and immidiately knew that someone- some bitch, had talked to someone. And since the brown furred guy had visited Butterfly then he knew where to start looking for answers.

_I swear to god if that whore talked to someone-_ He'd make sure that she didn't live long enough to regret her decision.

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_Everything is falling into place_. Throttle thought as he watched the fifth news van roll up and park. It wouldn't be much longer until he would have enough people watching the building, trapping the people inside and causing a panic to the point where he and Stoker could slip in and get the girls out.

He wanted Ara out of there before something went wrong.

He looked at Vinny and lifted his arm to motion for him to come over and waited for the white furred man to get right in front of him before he grabbed his arm and pulled him into a huddle. "What's up?" Vinny asked curiously, his tone barely above a whisper.

Throttle took a deep breath, unable to shake the nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach. Stoker had told him earlier to make himself scarce due to his station and the fact that the news crews were about, but Throttle didn't dare leave.

He was however worried that someone might read a little too much into his presence. And since he figured that it was inevetable that he'd be cornered by the news reporters then he had decided to explain his presence there with a lie that was something along the lines of,

Vinny had been out the night before and had come across this building and bought a girl for the night and upon hearing that she was a kidnap/abuse victim had gotten concerned and had left to get his brothers and some help for the girls inside the building.

There. Problem solved, sort of.

Stoker would have to do damage control and make sure that they didn't get too much bad media that it could cause problems for them or for Mars a little later on. The last thing they needed was bad press about prostitutes and the aliens. Shit like that could easily be blown out of proportion and give them a bad rep.

He told Vinny what he needed to say if the news people cornered him for an interview. Once that was done Stoker grabbed him and pulled him aside and told him to get ready to go in and tossed him a bullet proof vest with sleeves as he set out a few choice weapons for Throttle to use if he needed too onece he was inside.

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_Ara never knew someone was in her room until the needle pierced the skin of her arm, startling her wide awake as she screamed and pushed against the heavy torso looming over her a second before there was a loud sickening crack that could only come from flesh striking flesh as her head snapped violently to the side. Her scream died down to a pained moan as her face burned._

_"You bitch, you've gone and done it this time haven't you-" Someone growled at her._

_"I don't know what your talking about." Ara sobbed as she tried again to push the person away from her. She was hit two more times in rapid succession until she went totally still and lay there on the bed shaking and whimpering as blood trickled down her cheek, from her nose and her split lip. _

_"You told someone about this place and how it works-" _

_"So what-" Ara spat as she managed to lift one of her legs and planted it against his chest and used it to push him away form her as she bounded off of the bed and jerked the needle out of her arm and threw it at him. "I have every right to say something you son of a bitch! I was a child that you and other sick fuckers like you, turned into a whore!" She didn't give him time to get up, she'd be damned if she just stood there screaming while he beat her. _

_She wasn't weak goddamn it and she certainly wasn't going down without a fight._


	7. Chapter 7

**Warning!**

Torture in this chapter.

Squeamish people should steer clear of the bottom half of the page.

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Being a former soldier had it's advantages. Throttle thought as he and Stoker flattened their backs against the brick on either side of the back door to the Black Cherry, guns in their hands, bullet proof vests, pants, and armored helmets on their heads.

"Remember not to shoot at just anything that moves, Stoker. A lot of the people in the building are women who have been abused for years. And some of their customers won't want to give them up right away. Not when they could use them as shields or kill them outright to distract you. If you have to shoot someone, aim somewhere that will take them out while avoiding the kill."

Stoker gave his prince an amused look. "You talk to me like I'm a newbie. I know how this shit works boy. You just make sure that you don't get yourself hurt." Throttle made an inaudible sound in the back of his throat and waited until they heard the huge rucus Vinny and Modo were making out front to distract the people inside the building before slipping in.

Throttle found it just a mite odd that there were only four or five guys total that put up some sort of resistance against them as they broke into random rooms that had the doors closed, indicating that they were occupied, and dragged the men out and told the females to leave out the back.

This went on for about ten minutes, by Throttle's estimate though his calculation may have been off by anywhere from a few minutes to an hour since adrenaline rushes tended to distort his sense of time. But finally they managed to get to Ara's room, the door was wide open, and Throttle became very worried upon finding that the woman wasn't still in her room asleep like he had left her only a few hours ago.

_Where could she be?_ He wondered frightened that something may have happened to her as he walked around her room looking for any signs of her. The bed was a mess, and while he wanted to think it was a sign that she had gotten into trouble he couldn't help but think that maybe she'd had a nightmare and tossed and turned after he'd left.

Either that or she had been attacked and had put up a fight.

He clenched his teeth and bristled as his fur stood up, a low rumbling growl escaping his throat. God help him if _anything_ had happened to Ara he was going to throw a tantrum the likes of which the people of Earth had never seen before. "Stoker, finish looking around up here. I remember her mentioning something about the basement last night. If someone found out that she had told on them, then that may be where they have her."

"So naturally you're going down there after her." It wasn't a question. Merely an observation from the older man. Throttle nodded his head and checked his gun clip and made his way back to the door and paused just for a second as the lights flickered on and off.

Both men looked up and frowned as the flickering continued then stopped for a second then started again. Throttle looked at Stoker, his expression worried. "How many volts does it take to kill a human?"

Stoker looked at him strangely for a moment. "A few thousand watts I'd imagine. But that's only if said human was healthy and didn't have some sort of heart defect."

Throttle got a peculiar look on his face and quickly left the room and took the stairs down to the first floor and looked around for the basement door as Stoker called out, "Calm down! It may just be some faulty wiring!"

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Ara couldn't breathe. Couldn't see- her eyes were rolled back in her head, her hair and skin damp with sweat from being tortured for the past hour in a half. After being dragged from her room she'd woken up in the basement, tied to a dirty little steel framed bed naked, surrounded by men in blood red hooded robes with black woven belts and masks.

They had taken turns with her, trying their damndest to inflict pain. But she had laughed at them inbetween changing places with others.

Honestly their lack of creativity had been pathetic. She'd been raped countless times since being kidnapped. She'd survived then and she would damn well survive now. It hadn't bothered her in the least since she had learned to deaden her emotions so that she felt nothing while being used.

Then things had gotten rough. Really rough. One of the men had come up to her and had broken three of her fingers on one hand and two of the fingers on her other hand while another had started flaying the skin off of her stomach.

And if that didn't hurt her enough, someone rubbed little spots of her skin with alcohol and touched a burning match to the places. Burning off her skin in layers before rubbing salt rocks into the wounds to make them bleed.

Then after a while-she lost track of time- someone brought forth some electical cables that were part of the building's wiring and attached them to her using duct tape and stood back to watch as she spasmed and flailed around while trying to escape as she had several thousand volts of electicity pulse through her body.

Her last conscious thought of anything was the thought that slithered through her head before everything went dark. Throttle had said that he would save her._ He'd lied._


	8. Chapter 8

Four days later-

Throttle sat next to Ara's hospital bed, broodingly thinking while watching her for any signs of consciousness or pain while silently berating himself for being so stupid as to leave her alone to begin with.

He hadn't expected something so sadistic and cruel to occur but what he had found in the basement of the Black Cherry had been _horrifying_ to a male as protective and gentle natured towards women as he was.

Honestly he had flipped. Spattering blood and rending flesh in an animalistic way. Killing his victims slowly by wounding them then walking away and leaving them to die on the dirty floor.

All just so that he could reach Ara.

She had barely been alive. Her pulse once he had gotten the cables attached to her, off, had been so damn weak. Her breathing labored. He had carefully picked her up and cradled her half lifeless body in his arms and carried her out of the hell hole that she been forced into.

He'd sat with her in the ambulance, on the trip to the hospital. He'd sat with her in the ER when the doctors had started IV's and set her broken fingers and treated her many burns and other wounds. Hell, he'd even stayed with her while a rape kit had been done and afterwards when one of the doctors had given her a liquid dose of the morning after pill to make sure that she didn't end up with any little accidents.

It had been difficult him to bear, knowing what had been done to her before he had reached her. But nothing aside from the confimation of the rapes had bothered him as much as trying to locate her family and finding out that they were dead. Likely murdered by the same people who had taken her so that no one would look for her.

Which meant that Ara was alone now. Totally and utterly and it pissed him off _so_ fucking badly that she was stuck in this seemingly endless cluster fuck sort of situation.

A woman should never have everything ripped from her like this. He'd been wracking his brain for days just trying to figure out what to do for her. He didn't want her alone. Not after everything that had happened.

Leaving her alone would be too cruel.

He sighed and let his head fall back against the back of his chair as the door across the room opened and Modo and Vinny peeked in. Throttle glanced at them out of the corner of his eyes then lifted his hand a little bit and sort of waved them in. The two slipped into the room silently for a pair of guys that were almost six foot eight, close to two hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle, _with_ tails.

Modo stepped over to his seat and laid a hand on his shoulder, his other arm cradling a bouquet of pink, white, and purple flowers with silver spiral glittery twigs sticking out of them. "How is she doing?"

"No change." Throttle said in a dark tone while wondering if he could petition the human government so that he could pass judgement on the men that had done this to Ara. If so then he'd have their dicks shot off and then hand them over to sadists even worse than they were so that they could suffer a bit before they died. He figured that after the painful removal of their sex organ and after being brutilized a little bit they would gain a deeper understanding of the pain and suffering that they had caused and would feel remorse.

He doubted this would be the case, but still he could dream. Right?

"Have the doctors said anything more about her condition?" Vinny asked from next to the bed, his pink eyes never looking away from the female lying so still on the narrow bed. He was still trying to figure out why his prince was so- well, _obsessed_ with this woman.

It was true that she was a beauty. Throttle had told him and Modo that she was flawless in her appearance. He'd even likened her beauty to that of a flawless moon pearl. A rare gem back on Mars that was highly valued because they were only created every few hundred years during certain atmospheric phenomenon.

This phenomenon created something akin to an white earth pearl but with some noticable differences. One of which was the pale pink, purple and green flashes of color that made it look like colored lightning was trapped in the white stone.

They had only seen something similar to it once here on earth and that was when Charlie had showed them an old family heirloom called an opal. They'd been so shocked that they had done nothing but gape at the piece. Which was why Charlie had saw fit to buy them all a piece of opal jewelry to comfort them when they got home sick.

That had been years ago after they had first crash landed. And because those pieces still reminded them of home and held a great deal of value to them, they had kept them and were planning to present them to their brides when they married.

Throttle shook his head no. The damned doctors hadn't told him anything more aside from the fact that she was in a semi coma due to the stress that had been put on her body. They said that once she'd been given a while to heal that she would probably come out of it and then they could start working towards a recovery.

But Throttle didn't deal well with 'probably'. The word left far too much open to error.

"Do you know where she'll go once she's out of here?" Modo asked curiously. Throttle shook his head. No. He had no damned clue where she could go once she left the hospital. And it was killing him because he just knew deep down in his bones that he'd accepted responsibility for her and would want to keep her close.


	9. Chapter 9

In the end Throttle decided that Ara would be staying with him until she felt well enough to live on her own again. At which point he'd set her up in a nice house with a sizable monthly allowance so that she would never want for anything or have to work again unless she chose to do so.

He called Stoker up and asked him if he could help prepare a room for Ara at the mansion Throttle had been set up in by the human government and then talked to her doctors about moving her as soon as possible.

Once everything was set up he then called Modo and Vinny and asked them if they would mind escourting Ara's ambulance to the mansion and helping the doctors set up what they needed to set up to keep her comfortable and help her heal. Upon getting the green light from his bro's Throttle got up out of his seat next to Ara's bed and decided to go home and make sure that her room was ready for her.

Before leaving Throttle moved to stand next to Ara's bed and leaned over her for a moment and tucked the thin hospital blanket a little more tightly around her slender shoulders and gently kissed her cheek and whispered to her. "It'll be okay Ara. I'll take care of you." Then straightened his spine and walked out of the room.

Missing the slight twitch in Ara's fingers before they went limp again.

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An hour in a half later Throttle stepped into his temporary home and paused at the unmistakable sound of someone shouting out orders upstairs in the...eastern wing of the mansion. Grinning at the possiblity of seeing Stokers fur standing up on end, he made his way through the house to the stairs and took them three at a time until he reached the top then turned and headed towards the area where he heard the most noise.

There was a flurry of activity in the room where he found Stoker. There were people moving furniture, people carrying flowers in vases, people carrying lace curtains and hangers of clothes.

_What the hell is all of this?_ Throttle wondered as someone showed a dress to Stoker who looked it over briefly then waved it away then said in a loud tone. "For the love of god, work with me people! My prince is bringing home an very fragile young lady. We want her to have the best of everything!" He stopped talking for a second then suddenly shouted, startling everyone in the room with him and Throttle.

"You! Put those flowers down on the table next to the bed and if you touch them again, I'll break your hands!" Throttle stood there for a second with an bemused look on his face before someone accidentally broke something and he had to step into the room and make his presence known before his adopted father could go mid evil on someone's ass.

Stoker looked at him for a second then snapped at everyone to take a break and waited for the humans to leave the room before walking up to Throttle and clasping his wrist in his hand to show respect for Throttle's station. "My prince-"

"Stoker please, don't do this now. Just speak plainly."

"Alright then-" Stoker said a little wryly. "I wasn't sure about your lady friends tastes so I thought redecorating the room to make it more feminine would be better than simply setting her up in a mis matched nightmare. Everything is being redone in pale blues, lavender purples, white and silver so that it all matches. The bedsheets, the curtains, the carpet- all of it. And then there was the fact that I wasn't sure how long exactly she'd be here so I thought she would need clothes- because it just wouldn't do for her to run around your home naked."

"Of course not." Throttle agreed as part of his mind sighed, _Bummer man. You'd like to see her naked at least once. _Throttle was errily silent as Stoker led him over to the closet and pulled the doors open and showed him some of the things that he'd had brought for Ara. Throttle looked over the different styles and brands and then noticed a few formal gowns mixed in and gave Stoker a questioning look.

The elder shrugged his shoulder and gave him a wary/nervous look and said, "Again, I wasn't sure how long she'd be staying so I thought I'd cover all of the bases."

Throttle gave him a pointed look, knowing damn well what the elder was getting at but said nothing as he turned his attention back to the formal gowns and started to pull them out one by one to see what they looked like.

There was five in all so far, one of them was an ankle length white dress that had little white seed beads swen onto the fabric in snow flake patterns. Another one was an off the shoulder champagne colored ankle length dress that was perhaps a little bit on the plain side, but after Stoker showed him the crystal jewelry he'd gotten to go with the dress he didn't think it was so plain anymore.

There was an deep, deep blue dress with a low cut bodice (he wasn't entirely sure that he should keep this dress because it looked slightly similar to the one that Ara had been wearing when he met her. He handed the blue one to Stoker and asked him to find one like it in another color then turned his attention back to the slinky black halter style dress with a slit in the skirt that he'd found.

And scarlet red one with a heart shaped bodice and a satin belt with glittering crystal on the belt. All in all they were pretty nice and tasteful choices. He put the last one back and let Stoker pull him over to the vanity he'd gotten for Ara and showed him the crystal bottles of perfumes and the small amount of cosmetics that he'd collected and asked Throttle's opinion on them.

Throttle wasn't sure how much time he spent in the room going over the smallest of details with Stoker but by the time he managed to get around the entire room two in a half hours had already passed and it was almost time for Ara to be taken off of the machines at the hospital. "Shit, I need to go. You can take care fo the rest of this right?" Throttle asked Stoker as he headed for the door.

Stoker didn't even have time to answer before his prince slipped out the door and took off running down the hall.


	10. Chapter 10

Ara's transfer to his Earth home went more smoothly than Throttle had anticipated.

It only took an hour to get her to his home and settled in her new room where she lay on the bed, still sleeping. That had been two days ago and he hadn't left her side since. He'd simply flat out refused, feeling that leaving her alone even for an instant could somehow cause irreparable damage to her whether she was asleep or not.

So he spent most of his time reading aloud to her or asking one of his bros to bring him various things like flowers. Like gardenia's, roses, and fragrant lilies that he then pulled the petals off of and scattered them across the bed so that Ara would have sweet dreams. If she dreamt at all.

And inbetween those times he would bathe her in the tub in the bathroom attached to her bedroom to make sure that she stayed fresh and clean and comfortable even though she couldn't bathe herself. He was careful of the places that had been injured, and was also careful to keep her body covered so that she wouldn't be totally vulnerable.

She'd spent a majority of her young life subjected to the whims of perverts and vulnerable so he knew that she would apprieciate that he was trying not to leave her in such a state.

And to make sure that she didn't drown he stripped down to his pants and climbed into the tub with her and washed her hair and rubbed flower scented soap over the wet skin of her neck, shoulders, arms and legs (but only below the knee. He didn't dare go higher. It just felt wrong to him to go any further) then washed her face and climbed out and wrapped her in an extra fluffy towel and carefully dried her off before slipping some clean clothes on her and putting her back to bed.

After that he spent close to thirty minutes finger combing her hair before he sat back down in his seat and used the same towel that he'd used to dry her off, to dry himself. He must have sat there for hours just staring at her that second night before Stoker and his bros came in. All of them curious to know what he was doing up here in the comatose girl's room.

"My prince?" Stoker said from some where behind him causing Throttle to jump a little bit before he turned his head to look at him, some of his fur still damp from bathing Ara and sticking up in all directions.

"What is it?" Throttle asked as he slowly turned his head back towards Ara and forced himself to relax a bit.

"We were wondering how she's doing?" Vinny said softly. His tone so low that it was almost a whisper.

"She's still unresponsive."

"Should we arrange for a doctor and some nurses to come here and help take care of her?" Modo asked curiously. Throttle thought for a moment, weighing the pros and cons before responding.

"That might be for the best since I can't stay with her every hour of every day-" Throttle said softly as he leaned forward to smooth some of her dark hair from her face before saying. "I'll contact some places tomorrow morning and set things up." He sat back in his chair and rested his elbow on the arm of the chair then settled his chin in his palm.

He and the others talked for a little bit about this and that and nothing at all before they decided to call it a night. Leaving him alone to get some sleep if he could. He sat there for another few hours doing nothing at all and finally managed to doze off around the time that the sun started to rise.


	11. Chapter 11

Hey it's been a while. Sorry bout that. I've been working on getting some stuff printed.

I've even entered several contests and am a finalist in one of them! Which I think is so cool. Anyways- I've left you hanging long enough.

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Two weeks later-

Throttle sank down into his usual seat next to Ara's bed with a frustrated sigh and went about his normal daily routine of watching the nurses taking care of his comatose human charge like a hawk. His scarlet eyes tracking every movement that the other human's made as they neared the prone figure lying so still on the bed.

The past two weeks had been utter hell for him. For multiple reasons, but the main one that stung like hell was that Ara (a fragile human female) had somehow managed to worm her way into his heart during the short time he'd been with her while she had been conscious. And now he had a serious decision to make due to the unstable affairs of his people and the Martian's relationship with Earth.

He was semi-coerced by both the human and Martian governments to take a wife. For political purposes, if one could believe that reason at all. Frankly he couldn't quite believe that every human of political status would simply offer up their daughters like sacrificial lambs, but in the past two days he'd met a score of women (mostly Earthlings since Martian women were so damned few) and had come to the conclusion of 1) Human's in general were seriously lacking in intelligence if they thought him so weak that he would fall for the ploys of their daughters.

I mean, come on- it may have been a while since he had last had a lover, but he wasn't so desperate for companionship that he'd fall for a smile, a wink, a nice view of some cleavage, or some leg.

And then there was issue number 2) If he married, what would happen to Ara? Cause he didn't think that any wife of his would let him keep up a young woman that had once been a prostitute no matter how that had come to happen. Not to mention that if for some miraculous reason his wife did allow him to continue seeing to Ara's welfare... Well that would just give reporters and tabloid writers something to write about.

But that had nothing to do with here and now aside from the fact that Throttle felt the stress that the being the last of his planet's royal bloodline, pressing down on him. He didn't want to marry. Not for political reasons. And certainly not because he'd been manipulated into it.

He wanted his future Queen to be a kind and compassionate person who could stand by his side. He didn't care if she was a soldier, politician, school teacher, or in Ara's case... A former prostitute.

Sighing again, Throttle removed his shades and set them aside on the small table next to a vase of white ponies, lilies and blue baby's breath. His head was starting to hurt from all of the things he'd been thinking of as the nurses finished checking Ara's vitals and administering medicine then all but the head nurse left the room.

"Sir?"

He sat up a little straighter in his chair and gave the woman whom had spoken his full attention. "Yes ma'am."

"Would you like a progress report?"

Throttle stared at her for a moment then asked, "Has there been any progress?" The woman was silent for a moment then sighed herself and then slowly shook her head before replying,

"Not really. At least I don't think so. But one of the others thought that they noticed the young ladies fingers twitch earlier today." Throttle tipped his head back a little bit so that he was looking at the woman's face, his eyes searching for any signs of encouragement before he asked,

"Is it possible that she's coming out of her coma?" His heart thudded in his chest, the roar of his blood in his ears was so loud that he could barely hear the woman's answer as she spoke again.

"It is possible. But then again it's just as possible that my girl imagined it or that the young lady's fingers twitching could simply indicate some sort of dream or thought pattern."

"Then it's hopeless?"

"No. Not hopeless. The young lady just needs a bit more time to heal." The woman said to Throttle, both completely missing Ara's hand fisting and unfisting on the bed.


	12. Chapter 12

Three days later-

Throttle rolled out of bed at exactly four in the a.m. due to the fact that he'd been feeling restless and having trouble sleeping ever since he'd heard Ara's head nurse tell him that she might (or might not) be waking up. And in between all the damnedable marriage proposals and his normal daily routines- he was quickly growing impatient to see her open her eyes again. To sit down by her bedside and speak with her...

Logically speaking he knew it was a long shot that probably wouldn't happen for a while yet, but the feelings the human girl stirred in him weren't exactly logical. So when it came to her and how he felt about her, all logic just seemed to go out the door. Which might explain why he found himself roaming the halls of his home, pausing for a moment outside of her room and just stood there for a moment debating on whether or not he should go inside and just hold her hand for a bit when he heard a strange sound from the other side of the door and frowned.

That sounded suspiciously like the heart monitor going off. Was something wrong with Ara? He wondered as a feeling of dread settled in his gut and he quickly gripped the door knob and opened the it and quickly slipped inside the dark room and flicked the lights on as he started to mentally go over what he would need to do to keep his human from dying.

He was so preoccupied by his thoughts of preserving Ara's life that he completely missing the fact that the bed was empty until he had the crash cart over by it and was looking down at it, just staring in shock.

Um...okay, there was something horribly wrong here. Ara was missing and he had no idea where- _"Ugh... Ow."_ A raspy voice said from somewhere in the room, behind him, causing him to turn and search for a moment until he noticed the bathroom door was ajar and the light was on.

"Ara?" He called out, not bothering to be discreet. After all, if she was awake then he damned sure wanted to see her.

Making his way over to the bathroom door he placed his palm against the sturdy wood and then pushed the door open so that he could see inside the luxurious room that he'd given to her, and saw his little human sitting on the floor with a bewildered look upon her pretty face as she tilted her head back so that she could look at him. "Ara? You okay?" He asked as he grabbed a large fluffy towel from one of the hooks hanging on the wall and then knelt down next to her and slipped the towel around her slender frame.

She was silent as he carefully lifted her up and set her in his lap while absently checking her over for more wounds. And after a minute or so determined that she was okay, she was just... Shaking?

Why was she shaking? Was she cold? He wondered as he gently took both of her hands in his and lifted them to his mouth and kissed her palms before letting her hands go so that he could hug her. "I've been so worried about you." He said as he held her as close to his body as he dared due to some of her wounds still needing time to heal properly.

He felt her breath on his shoulder as she slightly turned her head so that her face was buried against his neck before finally seeming to find the words to speak. But this was a far cry from the reunion that he had longed for as she asked in a tentative and childlike tone, "Do I know you?"

Abruptly loosening his hold on her body, Throttle looked at her. She had a genuinely puzzled expression on her face as she stared up at him. Did she really not know him? Lifting a hand from it's current resting spot, he brought it up to push her long black hair back from her face as he took several shaky breaths to try and calm himself. Oh god. Had the pain that had been inflicted upon her back at the brothel been too much for her fragile mind to cope with?

Had it damaged her irrevocably? He wondered as he smiled past the painful twinge in his chest and said, "Yeah, we know each other. My name is Throttle. Throttle Thornboy. I'm an alien prince who's come to your planet to establish a political relationship with you're people. If I could ask, do you recall your name?"

Ara was quiet for a moment then nodded her head slowly, Yes of course she recalled who she was. She just didn't remember anything about aliens coming to Earth- so naturally this was just a little bit of a shock to her. Especially having one sitting in the bathroom floor with her in his lap. He certainly was a big guy, and ripped too. And he acted so very peculiar.

Frankly she didn't know what to make of him as he hugged her again, squeezing her just a little bit tighter this time as he slowly stood up, carrying her with him. "Okay then, let's get you back to bed." He said as he used his- holy shit was that a tail?- to turn off the bathroom light and carried her into the large unfamiliar bedroom that she remembered waking up in.

He stopped next to the nice bed that she had been sleeping in just a little while ago and started to put her down when she wound her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. For some reason that she couldn't explain the mere thought of being back in that bed alone frightened her. Pausing in mid motion Throttle felt Ara wrap her arms around him and wondered what was going through her mind when she made a small whimpering sound and suddenly the room was awash in the heavy scent of fear.

_What the-_ "A-Ara? Hey are you okay?" He asked as he reached up to try and gently pry her arms from around his neck. It didn't work. But at least he made a valiant effort before she said,

"I don't want to sleep anymore! I'm scared!"

"Hey, hey," He patted her back awkwardly with one hand while using his other to support her weight as he said gently, "There's nothing to be afraid of. I won't let anyone or anything touch you."

"I'm still scared..." She said after a moment or so, her tone still slightly anxious sounding to his ears. Sighing, Throttle thought for a moment then said.

"Okay. Then I'll just have to take you with me and let you sleep in my room," At which point he could have kicked himself for sounding like he was interested in getting into her pants. Ara obviously thought about kicking him for a moment or so if one considered the strange look that she had given him as any indication to her thoughts. "Uh, sorry that didn't sound right. What I meant was that there's safety in numbers and if you're scared then sleeping in my room with me will put you more at ease. Plus, I have a terrace where I get to eat my breakfast and stuff and it has a beautiful view of all of the flowers in my garden and everything. So what do you say?"

"I say...someone's got a dirty mind. But okay. Only if you stay on you're side of the bed."

Throttle smiled a little at her comment and without another word shifted his hold on her and walked out of the room.


	13. Chapter 13

Throttle didn't sleep at all after that.

Mostly because Ara had fallen asleep in his arms while on he had been carrying her to his room after he had seen that she was awake and her mind was somehow suppressing what had happened to her in the brothel. Something that he was more than thankful for since he didn't want her to ever remember the years she had sent being bought and sold by people who had been only too happy to rape her repeatedly.

None of them ever caring that she was an actual person, with thoughts and feelings. None of them ever thinking that she might be someone's daughter- there against her will. Even thinking about it now pissed him off in ways that made him want to draw blood in some of the worst ways imaginable.

But that was neither here nor there.

At this exact moment all he could manage to think of was the soft warm body, so gently held in his arms, and how desperately he wanted to get some more sleep now that he knew she would wake up again. God knew he'd been fretting over shit like Modo usually did. And that was really saying something considering that when Modo worried about something- his grey fur tended to fall out in various (and somewhat unmentionable) places.

Something that he himself, wished to avoid since it might make him less appealing to the human woman that was the main source of all his worry at the moment. Stepping into his large bedroom and blinked for a moment (taking note for what seemed like the first time ever that the space he called his was large enough for three whole families to occupy).

His room was the typical for someone who had been at one time, a soldier. It was neat, tidy, and though he was an unattached male- from time to time he did have the bad habit of leaving embarrassing articles of clothing lying around. He had his military uniform (yes, he had one. He merely refused to wear it due to the fact that he considered it too formal for his taste much less the battlefield) and several pairs of jeans all hanging up in his closet.

He had close to thirteen sets of boots. And yeah he knew what was said about females and their near constant need to have shoes for every occasion, however since learning that he was the last of the Martian royal's the Earth's government had decided to shower him with certain gifts in order to make a good impression. They knew that he wouldn't take any lavish and expensive gifts, so they had tried another route and sent him cool biker boots.

And yes, he did wear them. One pair for each day of the week.

His walls, which he had never really noticed before, were a nice dark green with cream and mint green trim to it that matched the curtains hanging from his windows that carpet laying on the floor and the bed sheets and pillows on his bed.

There were no knick-knacks. He had no use for such things. There were no other personal effects in his room aside from a shelf of books, sitting next to a desk where he studied the politics of both Earth and Mars. Because he did not want to make any mistakes or fall into any of the common pitfalls and traps that others fell for while working. After all the last thing he needed was to make his people appear weak or embarrass them.

Sighing softly, he glanced down at Ara's sleeping face. With her head resting on his chest like it was, and her dark hair partially hiding her features from view... All he could really see of her was the soft pink of her lips.

Feeling the slight tug at the corners of his own, he took one last look at his room before silently padding across the floor to his bed and grabbed the thin blanket covering it and pulled it off then made his way over to the terrace and opened the sliding glass door and stepped outside. The night air was a little bit cool, and thanks to the flowers in his garden- smelled so damn sweet.

He would sleep here tonight. With Ara in his arms, and tomorrow once she was awake and well fed- he'd see about moving some of her things into his room if she wanted him too. Until then, he'd give her the run of the house and post Modo as her personal guard so that Stoker could stay with him.

Carefully sitting himself down in the far corner of the cement terrace, he wrapped her slender, fragile body in the blanket that he'd pulled from his bed and settled his back against the stone railing and drew up one leg at the knee so that he could more easily support Ara's weight and sat there for a little while with the smell of his human and flowers in his nose before finally slipping into a light doze sometime just shy of dawn.


	14. Chapter 14

**_Okay first of all- haven't been updating this much lately. Sorry about that. _**

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Throttle awoke several hours later to the sound of heavy footfalls pounding against the marble floors outside of his room in random directions mere moments before Modo and Vinny came barging into his room with all the grace of a herd of elephants. Quickly adjusting his hold on Ara and placing one of his hands over her visible ear to muffle the loud banging of his doors against the hard plaster of his bedroom walls- He waited for his bros to spot him and start talking about what the hell had their damn tails in a twist.

Hopefully he could give them just enough rope to hang themselves with before he tore into them for bursting into his room without permission.

"Ara's missing!" Vinny blurted the second they reached the terrace where he'd been sleeping with said person in his arms causing him to sort of hunch his shoulders a bit and bow his back so that he was semi curled around her in a protective manner. Now don't get him wrong. He had spent the better part of ten years fighting beside them as their commander, he_ knew_ his bros. Hell he even loved them as if they were his own damned blood kin. And he knew that the two large males would rather rip out their own beating hearts than hurt someone as little and mentally fragile as Ara was.

But then they were like him.

Protectors. _Soldiers._

And like him they both lived with the creed, _Never raise your hand to a lady. _

But be that as it may, he couldn't stop the insane urge to shelter Ara from them as he rested his chin on the top of her head and glared at his boys for the sheer audacity of bursting into his room like their tails were on fire. God his bro's could really be dense sometimes. After the past few weeks of staying up and not resting properly and going to check on her every other hour... Did they really think that he would be in his bedroom sleeping like a little baby if Ara had truly been missing?

_Fuck. No._

He'd be tearing apart every room. Every closet. Every bathroom. Every cabinet.

He'd look under every bed, and desk. And if he didn't find her inside, he would mobilize his men and every resource he had here on Earth and he would take them all out and send them to the four corners of the wind. All just to find her.

"Shhh." Throttle said softly, hoping that his bros would do as he said. Vinny and Modo both exchanged a look and frowned. Their bro was acting oddly careless for someone who'd gone out of his way to not only rescue an injured and abused young woman. But had created a safe and sterile environment for her to heal and called in professional health care officials to take care for her needs.

If they didn't know any better- they would think that their bro was prioritizing something like the female's health and wellbeing as something less than what they knew it was to him.

So why was he acting so peculiar? They wondered as Modo dropped to a knee and studied his prince for a moment when he noticed a small furless foot sticking out from under the blanket. Ah, so _that_ was why his prince wasn't so concerned whereas he and Vinny had both almost died from shock and disbelief when they had gone to check up on the little human that their prince had seemed so damned attached too, and found her gone- it was because his prince had pulled a fast one and had kept Ara with him.

_The jerk._ It was like he'd been trying to give them a heart attack or something.

Throttle said something that he missed at first. And his expression must have shown it because his prince sighed and scowled at him for a moment before saying again, "She woke up late last night, so I got her and brought her here."

"I see." Modo said as Vinny finally decided to join him in kneeling on the floor in front of their bro. A look of relief settling over the white furred male's face as Throttle spoke again.

"I'm going to need you guys to do something for me," They both nodded and waited for him to go on. "First I need someone to go to her room and grab some clean clothing for her. A gown, or shirt/pants combo with some nice socks. Her brush. Some...uh," Throttle paused for a moment as a blush worked it's way across his face as he thought, _Maybe I should just grab some unmentionables for her myself. _Especially since he didn't want anyone else to go through her things. Unmentionable's were private for a reason after all. "You know what, never mind. I'll get her some clothing. I need someone to contact the doctors that were taking care of her and tell someone that she woke up and might need a physical. And someone else should start looking through mental health providers. Ara's going to need a lot of help and we'll need someone on hand just in case. And if Stoker is around somewhere I need him to tell someone in the kitchen to fix a nice meal for Ara since she hasn't had any real food in a while."

The two looked at each other again then Throttle and both gave him a series of, 'Yeah sure.' and 'We're on it man.' Before getting up and quickly moving across the room when Throttle called out.

"And one more thing," The two paused just outside the door and turned to look at him. Their expressions questioning as their prince growled out, "Never barge into my room like that again without permission."


	15. Chapter 15

Throttle didn't bother leaving his bedroom for work, choosing instead to stay where he could be close to Ara just in case she woke up and needed him for something.

Food. A drink of water. More clothing.

Hell at this point if she woke up and asked for a five star meal- he'd not only hunt her food down for her, but he'd prepare it all with his own hands then just to be sure he had enough of everything- and then he'd drag the refrigerator upstairs to his room and hand everything to her, and make sure she ate enough to make her happy as a little clam.

Hn, now that he thought about it... It was well past mid day and he hadn't eaten anything yet himself. It was almost as if he were instinctually waiting for Ara. As if she were his mate or something.

But that couldn't be, could it?

I mean, sure, some of his kind mated to humans- But in his case, even if she were his mate...he would not be able to claim her as such without a majority of his people turning against him. After all, he was the last of his race's royalty as well as a highly decorated war hero.

And Ara (through no fault of her own) was- no, had been forced to be a whore for more years than any child human or otherwise) should have been.

Why many of his people would flip out just knowing that such a woman was near him. And he shuddered to imagine what the elders of his planet would do once they found out that she was living with him.

Not that he truly gave a damn what they thought of him or the company he kept, but Ara had finally regained her freedom after many, many years of physical and psychological torture.

The last thing she needed after being saved, was to be subjected to the harsh scrutiny of those who would harm her physically or mentally. Especially when she might not be able to take it.

After all of the years of abuse she would be too emotionally unstable. Which was probably _why_ he wished for nothing more than to protect her. He didn't give a damn about what people thought of him. He didn't give a flying rats ass if he was alienated from his own people due to her presence being in his home... Ara was staying right where he could see/touch/protect her.

End of story.

Stiffling a yawn behind one hand, he glanced back at the clock and felt his ears droop a little bit. Now it was almost two in the evening, and he was beginning to genuinely wonder if perhaps she had slipped back into a coma when she finally began to show signs of waking.

Moaning softly, Ara turned over half onto her stomach and half onto her side and glanced at him through a thick curtain of dark hair before asking in a raspy voice that almost rivaled his own, "Time?"

"After two p.m. Hungry?"

She moved her head in what he assumed was a nod and he smiled and reached out a hand to gently run his fingers through her hair for a moment before quickly getting up and leaving the room to fetch their food. And perhaps get her something to wear while he was at it.

Maybe a nice lavender or sky colored summer dress? Just something he felt she would be more comfortable in.


End file.
